November 2012
In this issue, we look at how many sick and personal days teachers get each year and what districts are doing to stem teacher absences.
On average, Tr3 districts give teachers about 13.5 leave days a year for illness and personal reasons.


Who gives the biggest "carrots" to discourage the use of leave? Houston pays teachers 100% of their daily rate for each unused day at retirement and Florida districts like Broward, Orange, Palm Beach and Pinellas pay up to 100% of the daily rate at retirement, depending on years of service. Chicago used to pay teachers 85%-100% of their daily rate for unused sick days, but under its new contract teachers can't cash out on them. Starting in the 2012-13 school year, Chicago teachers can only convert unused sick leave to pension service credits--and there's a 40-day cap on that.